Monday, May 28, 2007

Another Year Older And Deeper In Friends

Woo! Look at me! Still alive, still kicking it! Still buying toys, still reading comics, still writing this blog, still taking photos, still in college... crap. Well it was good while it lasted.

Last year I was kinda depressed as the clock ticked over midnight into my birthday, and this year, I was feeling similar. Don't know why. But I'm guessing it was to do with a lack of food or something. Anyway, I'm feeling great now as the day draws to a close!

I had another exam today. Child Health and Paediatrics. Went well, I felt. Over all, very happy with it. On the way there in the morning I took some really nice photos. It was a very bright morning. Then I got home with a chocolate cake and took the photo you see above, which was fun to do, and a bit different. On checking Flickr, I found my good friends that I've made there had posted lots of cool birthday photos for me, involving all sorts of toys! How cool is that?

So what's another year? Last year, I was really just getting into this. Over the past 265 days I have met a tonne of new people across the Internet that I will be forever proud to call friends. I still have the best friends in the world in real life, I'm still with the only person I want to spend my life with (no, not Spider-Man... Claire! Sheesh!), I've started some interesting projects and I'm almost finally done in UCC, even if I have some more time to spend in college. But at least I can get a job for a while and have money again!

Sunday, May 27, 2007

No Time To Blog

Just to let you all know that I'm kinda busy with my final exams, and don't really have time to post anything interesting or worthwhile!! My last two are Monday and Wednesday, so expect to see lots and lots or random rubbish spewing forward after that!!

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Self Education: Photoshop


Yesterday I learned some more of the joys of Photoshop, and put together the image you see above. In doing so, I had the opportunity to learn a bunch of new skills, as well as take time out from my study, which is, I have to admit, beginning to melt my brain!

To be honest, this whole thing started as a neat, simple idea that quickly spiralled out of control. Originally it was just going to be Spidey sending his birthday wishes to a Flickr pal, but then I thought to add a party of friends. Then the idea of a handmade banner cropped up, and I played around with that for a bit.

Once I had a group set up and ready to shoot, I realised that Giant Sized Spidey didn't have a place to be, so I sketched out the basics of what I thought might work. He was then photographed separately against a green screen and removed from his own background to be placed in this image. This meant learning how to use masks, something I'd never tried before but was aware of.

Once Draft One was complete, I didn't like the text on the banner, so all of it was photoshopped out and brand new text was drawn into it on the computer! That had to be blurred, filtered, and have a little noise added to make it look smooth and part of the image as a whole. All new features to me again!

Draft Two complete, I realised Spidey now kinda just hung there, so I needed a frame. After going nuts trying to figure out how to just make a simple straight line and then put a curve in it, I almost gave up. Then I remembered about something called OOB (Out Of Bounds) a friend had used and looked that up, which taught me how to do the frame. A few minor adjustments and I was nearly there.

Thankfully I had learnt my lessons on layers from a previous project, so almost every element of the image was on separate layers, making it easy to have Spidey and the banner overlapping the frame!! But that brought up a new issue! You see, in the photo of Spidey I used, part of his left elbow was cut off. Originally I didn't mind it, as it was outside the viewing area of the image in early drafts, but now that I had added the frame, he needed to have a complete arm.

To solve this, I had to use another of the photos I had taken of Spidey against the green screen that did have the elbow but was an inferior picture. I cropped the needed part, dropped out the background using my newly acquired masking skills and grafted the missing piece onto the large image. Smudge tool and careful blurring made the area of surgery seamless! If I hadn't included this paragraph, I doubt any of you would notice the work unless you really went looking for it. It's a tiny thing, but possibly the one I'm most proud of for what I had to do and how it turned out.

A little cleaning up here and there and I was done! I'm really proud of this. Yes, I started it for my friends birthday, but I have to admit, I finished it for myself! The weird thing is, I've never met Fengschwing in real life! I only know him through Flickr. Ah, the joys of the internet!

Go check out the image in it's full, gloriously uncompressed resolution to criticise my work with confidence!

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Need Cheering Up?

This baby will make make you smile. He has such a cute laugh, but at times it sounds like he's struggling to breath! At least he's having a good time.

Also, don't mess with this little lady. She would totally kick your ass butt.

And while I'm posting cool YouTube videos, this and this are just awesome! Not related to kiddies, but fantastic to watch. Makes me wish I didn't give up learning piano years ago.

And one final addition (promise): A GoogleVideo clip of a lazy cat. Again, it just makes me smile, but I think that's partly down to the guys voice.

Something Odd

Try this:

1) In the address bar, you should be looking at my blog address now, http://oneterrificday.blogspot.com/

2) Pop up there for a second and remove the "s" from "blogspot", then hit enter. Don't worry. The results are work safe, if not brain safe!

3) Laugh.

Anyone else found similar events with their blog? Just one letter away from disaster. Almost as bad as misspelling Hotmail as Hotmale!!

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Frozen Moments

Not only does May 2nd mean the first anniversary of my blogging exploits, but it is also marks the end of the first year of my Flickr account! And what a year it's been! To celebrate, I did a cool Flickr photo mosaic using a selection of images from the newest to the first few put up!

I hope you enjoy.
1. Friends, 2. Looking The Worse For Wear, 3. Images in Flame, 4. Shane in Sombrero, 5. Spider-Man?!?, 6. Andrea & I, 7. Looming Over, 8. Too Much Blue, 9. Just The Two Of Us, 10. Look Out! Cat!, 11. Hopi, 12. All Business, 13. Watching, 14. Me, 15. Three Daves, 16. See That..., 17. Friends 2006, 18. Hi!, 19. Classic Pose, 20. Cotton Wool Landscape, 21. The Touristy Shot, 22. Squish, 23. Sandy Dune, 24. Claire and Panda, 25. Picnic In The Park, 26. Noel, 27. Mirror Image, 28. Bring It On, Little Man, 29. Buster And Me, 30. To the Left, 31. Finger Puppets on the Moon, 32. Blink And You'll Be Missed, 33. Resting On The Lawn, 34. Through The Looking Glass, 35. Under Attack, 36. Debating World Politics

Bouncing Blogger Baby

On this date one year ago I started "One Terrific Day". To be honest, I'm not the best at keeping things going, I tend to start a lot of things, and I'm lucky if I see two of them through to completion. I'm just happy that this time this was one of the two.

I've enjoyed the past year, and having this blog is a great way to look back at fond memories that are already starting to cloud in my mind. I'd have to say, out of over 120 posts at least 118 of them were upbeat and positive, something I had as a goal from the very start. Things like Bebo and MySpace are full of depressed posters complaining about sucky lives, blissfully ignorant to the fact that simply having enough money to afford access to the Internet as well as all that black clothes and make-up puts them above 80% of the people on the planet already! I wanted something different. Something people could come to and enjoy, either through reading my often crazy antics, random ramblings, or whatever I've chosen to review this time.

Mostly I admit the last year of blogging has been pretty meaningless to anyone apart from myself. Even more of them are uninteresting unless you're one of the people involved in the story. But I guess that's alright! I'm not trying to have a readership in the thousands. I started this thing as a place for me to put my own thoughts down. That said, I love the fact that there are a few people who read this that I've never met! It does feel kinda cool being able to reach anyone with similar interests!

So that's it. A year of blogging behind me, and 120 posts and counting. Here's to many more!

And to everyone that's been reading, I hope you've found something worth seeing every now and then. Thanks.